The invention is particularly well suited for use in a rotary railroad car coupler assembly, although it can be used equally well in railroad car coupler assemblies of the non-rotary type.
Those skilled in the art of designing rotary railroad car coupler assemblies know that as the car coupler rotates, the shank of the coupler eccentrically imparts against the carrier, forces which cause the carrier to tilt within the chamber of the striker provided for receipt of the carrier and the coil springs for spring loading the carrier, thereby impeding the depression of the carrier in the chamber and causing undesirable chattering of the carrier as it tries to move downwardly in the chamber. Also, the temporary binding of the carrier within the chamber places undue stress against the striker. The invention is directed to solving this problem by the provision of an improved carrier which is specifically designed for limited angling or tilting to accommodate the rotation of the car coupler, whereby the carrier operates more smoothly.
Briefly stated, the invention is in a railroad car coupler assembly which comprises a yoke and a car coupler that includes a coupler head with an attached shank that extends from the head into the yoke. A mounting assembly is provided for mounting the butt end of the shank within the yoke. The assembly includes a striker which has a portion thereof designed to receive a spring loaded carrier that engages the coupler shank between the coupler head and the butt end of the shank to support the head. The striker portion has a chamber that is defined between a pair of opposing, vertically disposed sidewalls that have a pair of oppositely aligned stops which extend horizontally into the chamber from the sidewalls, when the yoke and coupler are in a normal horizontal operating position. The carrier, as well as the springs for resiliently loading the carrier, are received in the chamber of the striker portion. The carrier includes a pair of oppositely extending and horizontally aligned lugs for interlockingly engaging the stops to maintain the carrier within the chamber. The lugs have adjacent the vertical sidewalls of the striker portion, sloping sides which confront the sidewalls and converge in a direction away from the coupler shank. The sides of the carrier are sufficiently sloped to allow simultaneous depression and limited angling or tilting of the carrier within the chamber during rotation of the car coupler.
AAR Standard carriers have lugs with parallel sides that are, in turn, parallel to the sidewalls of the chamber and not sloped, as described above. It can be appreciated that the provision of sloping sides on the carrier does not adversely affect normal depression or operation of the carrier when used in conjunction with a non-rotary-type railroad car coupler assembly.